As child sex-abuse scandal escalates, the Catholic Church is now at war with itself

As child sex-abuse scandal escalates, the Catholic Church is now at war with itself

Dallas Morning News Editorial, August 30, 2018

“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”

Louis D. Brandeis wrote his often-quoted line about the power and necessity of transparency in 1913, three years before becoming a U.S. Supreme Court justice. A fearless proponent of social justice, he was writing about corruption and the concentration of power in the investment banking world at the time.

But he might just as well have been writing about the crisis the Catholic Church is in after a Pennsylvania grand jury released a 900-page report identifying 301 “predator priests” who sexually abused more than 1,000 children since the 1940s.

As we noted in our editorial Sunday, the grand jury said the tactics used by Catholic deacons, priests and bishops to cover up seven decades of abuse amounted to “a playbook for concealing the truth.” In a letter to all Catholics, Pope Francis called . . .